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Town Meeting OKs budget in Groton

By Pierre Comtois, Correspondent

Updated:
04/23/2013 02:12:58 PM EDT

Upon opening the Groton Town Meeting, six runners from the Squannacook Runners' Club who completed the Boston Marathon moments before the bombings, including Howard Hersey of Groton, third from left, Amy Sullivan of Lunenburg, far right, led the assembly in a moment of silence. Others included: Gary Cattarin, Marlborough; Jay Duffner, Shirley; Christopher Russell, Littleton; Brian Reeves, Shirley.
photo/karen riggert

GROTON -- Spring Town Meeting opened Monday night with votes on a number of spending items, including a town operating budget, spending for a new group of playing fields, and a special request by the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District for $562,055 for new technology.

Residents approved Fiscal 2014 town budget little comment at $30,994,975, a 2.68 percent increase over 2013. As passed, the budget would cost each taxpayer living in an average home about $6,908 in real estate taxes.

The budget also included the cost of schooling with $468,592 as Groton's share of the cost for the Nashoba Valley Technical High School and $15,118,999 for Groton-Dunstable Regional School District, which comes to a 2.67 percent increase in spending over 2013. Together, education took up over 54 percent of the town's total budget.

But the 241 residents who attended were in a generous mood when it came to education, as a majority also voted to approve $325,000 to help pay for a special request by Groton-Dunstable to help jumpstart its computer-related infrastructure. The Groton Electric Light Commission voted to contribute an extra $100,000 to the effort.

Speaking in favor of the appropriation, School Committee Chairwoman Allison Manugian told voters that "the district is falling behind" and that it had only the "bare bones" of equipment needed for current instruction.

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Manugian admitted that the district had been spending $300,000 annually on technology but that it was not enough and assured voters that none of the newly appropriated funds would be used until a new information technology director is hired who would be better able to judge how best to spend the money.

"This is an awful lot of money," worried resident Gary Roy, anxious that the district did not seem to have an overall strategy on how to spend the money to best advantage. "This is pretty nebulous."

Another resident, however, spoke in favor of the spending.

"To be in this game, you have to spend money," he said. "We need to make this investment for students for today, tomorrow, and the future."

Residents also went on to approve a list of capital-spending items, including $40,000 to buy rescue tools for the Fire/EMS Department; $175,000 to replace a salt-and-sand shed for the Highway Department; $40,000 to upgrade the town's information technology infrastructure; $40,000 for a new pick up truck for the town; and $78,000 for two new cruisers for the Police Department.

The only capital items called into question were those for the Pool & Golf Center which requested $10,200 for the first installment in the purchase of a rough mower; $20,000 toward the purchase of new golf carts; and $6,500 for boom -prayer unit.

The issue was ultimately approved, but not before questions arose on the center's profitability which was inadvertently brought up when Selectman Joshua Degen described the club as having "broken even" in its operation.

That contention was challenged by some residents who thought not including continued town spending on such items as mowers and golf carts made the center look better than it deserved.

That was supported by FinCom Chairman Jay Prager, who refused to consider the capital requests as anything but part of the club's normal operating expenses. Prager called for the center to be truly self supporting.

In its defense, manager Robert Whalen reminded everyone that when he first took over running the club a few years before, the place was falling apart and that there was no way enough revenue could be generated to pay for anything more than day-to-day operations. A new effort had begun to attract more members but until that bore fruit, the town would need to continue to help in the way of paying for capital items.

In the end, residents accepted the explanations and approved the appropriations.

Voters also approved a pair of CPC (Community Preservation Committee) appropriations, including $15,847 to buy a new generator for the Housing Authority to replace a back up generator at its Petapawag Place sewer pump station and $309,000 for the Parks Department to be used toward the development of what it calls Ledge Rock Field.

Located adjacent to the transfer station, Ledge Rock Field would create three new playing fields and parking for 100 cars on 35 acres of land adjacent to the town's transfer station.

Costing an estimated $900,000 the CPC appropriation would come in addition to $50,000 pledged by various sports groups in town and $541,000 from the town. That last figure however, will be conditioned upon the project receiving a $400,000 grant from the state.

With spending articles taken care of, the second session of Town Meeting tonight is expected to cover issues of zoning, a concept plan for a medical office building proposed for Boston Road, and the sale or lease of the disused Squannacook Hall.

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